I am senior fellow for environment policy at the Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News. I write about energy and environment issues, frequently focusing on global warming. I have presented environmental analysis on CNN, CNN Headline News, CBS Evening News, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and several national radio programs. My environmental analysis has been published in virtually every major newspaper in the United States. I studied atmospheric science and majored in government at Dartmouth College. I obtained my Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University.

Antarctic Sea Ice Sets Another Record

Editor’s note: An update from the author has been added to this article on September 20, 2012.

Antarctic sea ice set another record this past week, with the most amount of ice ever recorded on day 256 of the calendar year (September 12 of this leap year). Please, nobody tell the mainstream media or they might have to retract some stories and admit they are misrepresenting scientific data.

National Public Radio (NPR) published an article on its website last month claiming, “Ten years ago, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island disintegrated and melted in the waters off Antarctica. Two other massive ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula had suffered similar fates a few years before. The events became poster children for the effects of global warming. … There’s no question that unusually warm air triggered the final demise of these huge chunks of ice.”

NPR failed to mention anywhere in its article that Antarctic sea ice has been growing since satellites first began measuring the ice 33 years ago and the sea ice has been above the 33-year average throughout 2012.

Indeed, none of the mainstream media are covering this important story. A Google News search of the terms Antarctic, sea ice and record turns up not a single article on the Antarctic sea ice record. Amusingly, page after page of Google News results for Antarctic sea ice record show links to news articles breathlessly spreading fear and warning of calamity because Arctic sea ice recently set a 33-year low.

Sea ice around one pole is shrinking while sea ice around another pole is growing. This sure sounds like a global warming crisis to me.

Update: To provide more perspective on global warming and Antarctica, I would like to update this column with some additional information:

As meteorologist Anthony Watts explains, new data show ice mass is accumulating on the Antarctic continent as well as in the ocean surrounding Antarctica. The new data contradict an assertion by global warming alarmists that the expanding Antarctic sea ice is coming at the expense of a decline in Antarctic continental ice.

The new data also add context to sensationalist media stories about declining ice in small portions of Antarctica, such as portions of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula (see here, for example). The mainstream media frequently publish stories focusing on ice loss in these two areas, yet the media stories rarely if ever mention that ice is accumulating over the larger area of East Antarctica and that the continent as a whole is gaining snow and ice mass.

Interestingly, a new NASA study finds Antarctica once supported vegetation similar to that of present-day Iceland.

“The southward movements of rain bands associated with a warmer climate in the high-latitude southern hemisphere made the margins of Antarctica less like a polar desert, and more like present-day Iceland,” a co-author of the NASA study reports.

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From your comment, it appears that all you are concerned with is sea level. Too bad for you that it has risen about 400 feet since the last glaciers. When the next glaciers come, it will go right back down. The entire man-made global warming/climate/change CO2 religion has been exposed for the cult that it is. Unlike many of its adherents, I actually have degrees in science, can do the math and think critically without an agenda to warp the outcomes. Just for the fun of it, try to calculate the dispersion of CO2 form where it is produced (only in limited industrial areas) to the entire atmosphere. While you are at it, try calculating the effect of CLOUDS (never been done) on atmospheric temperature (do several different levels while you have your pencil all warmed up). Analyze how poorly ALL the computer models (how hard is it to rig a model to ‘prove’ anything) do at predicting. The IPCC climate models can’t simulate the reality of observed climate conditions. Climate models and computer simulations are incapable of producing credible climate predictions and forecasts due to the lack of understanding that scientists have about all the interactions within the climate system. Then take a shot at figuring how cosmic rays (creating clouds) effect temperature. Don’t forget the variability of the sun. You get the idea. If rising sea level frightens you, just think of it not as rising levels but as the oceans getting deeper. All the increase in water is at the BOTTOM of the hydro-column. Makes about as much sense at what the MMGW cultists say. Praise ALGOR

more scare tactics from the liberals…. i thought by now we were all going to be under water, what happened? AIDS didn’t kill us all, neither did H1N1, what’s next? you are definitely running out of scare tactics….

Eric Frost – A theory is a systematic explanation of a set of observations. A good theory is one that can retrodict (explain past observations) and make reliable predictions or forecasts of future observations. A theory is as good as it gets in science. There’s nothing higher in science than a workable theory. AGW is a workable theory that has been consistently and repeatedly confirmed.

@Lysol – I don’t believe you understand the current models the IPCC are using. They do a decent job predicting current climate and upcoming climate. I think the majority here seem to be under the assumption that scientists are deceiving the public with their research. I think that conspiratorial thinking is unproductive.

@Eric – I don’t think you understand what a theory truly is. Most people who make that argument have a high school understanding of what science is.

The ice on land is part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and its extensions into the ocean, as an ice shelf, are typically grounded on the bottom. This ice is not sea ice, which is formed from the freezing of seawater. Only a tiny fraction of sea ice becomes frozen to land as land-fast sea ice.

Now to the important points: 1. Scientists have known about the increase in Antarctic sea ice for years, it is consistent with the models for the Antarctic, and it does nothing to “disprove” global warming or climate change. 2. Increased snowfall and building up of the glaciers in the Antarctic continent’s interior is also consistent with the models for the Antarctic, and it does nothing to “disprove” global warming or climate change. 3. Given the above information and the fact that we expect the Antarctic sea ice to hit its winter-time maximum extent in September (just like the Arctic sea ice hits its maximum extent in April), what is the big deal here? 4. The mainstream media didn’t pick this story up because it is not a surprise to anybody knowledgeable about the cryosphere and its response to greenhouse warming and climate change. 5. The story only has traction with people like James Taylor, who only knows enough to be dangerous and not enough to actually help inform his readers about the subject.

The ice on land is part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and its extensions into the ocean, as an ice shelf, are typically grounded on the bottom. This ice is not sea ice, which is formed from the freezing of seawater. Only a tiny fraction of sea ice becomes frozen to land as land-fast sea ice.

Now to the important points: 1. Scientists have known about the increase in Antarctic sea ice for years, it is consistent with the climate-change models for the Antarctic, and it does nothing to “disprove” global warming. 2. Increased snowfall and the build up of the ice sheet in the Antarctic continent’s interior are also consistent with the climate-change models for the Antarctic, and they do nothing to “disprove” global warming. 3. Given the above information and the fact that we expect the Antarctic sea ice to hit its winter-time maximum extent in September (just like the Arctic sea ice hits its maximum extent in April), what is the big deal here? 4. The mainstream media didn’t pick this story up because it is not a surprise to anybody knowledgeable about the cryosphere and its response to global warming and climate change. 5. The story only has traction with people like James Taylor, who only knows enough to be dangerous and not enough to actually help inform his readers about the Earth’s climate system actually works.

The ice on land is part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and its extensions into the ocean, as an ice shelf, are typically grounded on the bottom. This ice is not sea ice, which is formed from the freezing of seawater. Only a tiny fraction of sea ice becomes frozen to land as land-fast sea ice.

Now to the important points: 1. Scientists have known about the increase in Antarctic sea ice for years, it is consistent with the climate-change models for the Antarctic, and it does nothing to “disprove” global warming. 2. Increased snowfall and the build up of the ice sheet in the Antarctic continent’s interior are also consistent with the climate-change models for the Antarctic, and they do nothing to “disprove” global warming. 3. Given the above information and the fact that we expect the Antarctic sea ice to hit its winter-time maximum extent in September (just like the Arctic sea ice hits its maximum extent in April), what is the big deal here? 4. The mainstream media didn’t pick this story up because it is not a surprise to anybody knowledgeable about the cryosphere and its response to global warming and climate change. 5. The story only has traction with climate change denialists like James Taylor, who only know enough to be dangerous and not enough to actually help inform their readers about how the Earth’s climate system actually works.